IN Brief:
- Infineon’s AIROC UWB TSL100 combines precise ranging and presence sensing on a single device.
- Automotive and industrial variants support secure access, tracking, navigation, and collision-avoidance applications.
- Low-power operation and stronger first-path detection address battery life and non-line-of-sight security.
Infineon Technologies has introduced the AIROC UWB TSL100 family, combining precise ranging and presence sensing within one device for secure access, asset tracking, indoor navigation, industrial safety, and automotive applications.
The family establishes Infineon’s first generation of ultra-wideband products under the AIROC brand and forms the basis of a scalable platform intended to support IEEE 802.15.4ab. Interoperability has also been designed around specifications developed by the Car Connectivity Consortium, the FiRa Consortium, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s Aliro initiative.
Two variants divide the initial applications. The AEC-Q100-qualified TSL111A is intended for automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers, covering digital keys, key fobs, in-cabin presence detection, kick sensing, and intrusion detection, while the TSL111C supports industrial and consumer systems including smart access, asset tracking, equipment finding, contactless interaction, and indoor navigation.
Combining ranging and sensing allows the radio to perform functions that might otherwise require separate proximity, motion, or presence-detection subsystems. Component count, board area, host interfaces, and software integration can consequently be reduced where the same antenna and RF path can support both functions.
Power consumption has been reduced for battery-operated credentials and tags, with the architecture targeting more than two years of coin-cell life in Car Connectivity Consortium ranging schemes used by key fobs. A dedicated low-power mode cuts current consumption by more than 50% when full operating performance is unnecessary.
Security performance centres on detecting the genuine direct propagation path in difficult non-line-of-sight conditions. The physical-layer design supports 48-bit FiRa and CCC security and can verify a direct path that is up to 100,000 times weaker than reflected signals, including cases where a key or phone is inside a pocket, bag, vehicle, or cluttered industrial environment.
Secure UWB access relies on measuring signal travel time rather than inferring distance from received-signal strength alone. Multipath environments complicate that measurement because reflections from walls, vehicles, shelving, machinery, and people may arrive with substantially greater energy than the earliest valid signal.
Development of narrowband-assisted UWB receivers is extending the range and coexistence options expected under IEEE 802.15.4ab. The TSL100 addresses another part of the system by bringing secure ranging, low-power operation, and sensing functions together within a deployable device family.
Industrial installations create a different radio environment from phones or vehicle keys. Asset tags may need to operate for years from small batteries, while robots, automated vehicles, and material-handling systems need low-latency location data that remains dependable around steel structures, shelving, moving equipment, and variable antenna orientations.
Presence sensing broadens the use of the radio beyond establishing the position of a tagged object. Changes in the propagation environment can indicate movement or occupancy without relying entirely on optical cameras, supporting safety zones, smart access, intrusion detection, and privacy-sensitive monitoring.
Mounting, enclosure materials, antenna design, calibration, and monitored-area geometry will still define practical sensing coverage. A device fitted behind metal, close to a large ground plane, or inside an electrically lossy enclosure may retain digital functionality while delivering substantially poorer ranging or sensing behaviour.
AIROC Zoning adds configurable unlock regions and inside-or-outside determination to the platform. An access system can therefore distinguish between a credential that is genuinely within an authorised zone and one that is nearby but on the wrong side of a door, vehicle, or controlled machine boundary.
Although hardware integration can simplify the bill of materials, firmware must manage timing, antenna selection, coexistence, security credentials, calibration, power states, regional radio rules, and application logic without allowing one operating mode to degrade another. The security chain must also continue from the radio measurement through the host processor to the final lock, actuator, or machine controller.
Engineering sample kits are available for evaluating ranging accuracy, sensing coverage, power consumption, and hardware-software integration. Performance across real enclosures and multipath environments will determine where both functions can share one device successfully, but UWB is moving beyond specialised distance measurement towards a combined communications, positioning, and sensing architecture.
